CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
DUTY VERSUS LOVE.
The last beams of the sun were gilding the summit of the ridge thatbounded the plain of Las Palmas, when Don Rafael Tres-Villas crossed iton his way to the hacienda Del Valle. To recover the time he had lost,he pressed his horse to his utmost speed, and descended the slope on theopposite side at a gallop. As the brave steed dashed onward, a hoarsesnorting sound was heard to issue from his nostrils, caused by thesingular operation which the _arriero_ had performed upon him.
On reaching the level of the valley in which stood the hacienda DelValle, the horseman drew bridle and listened, he was sufficiently nearthe house to have heard any unusual commotion that might be there goingon. He fully expected to have distinguished the shouts of men engagedin fight, or the tumultuous murmur of a siege.
No sound, however, reached his ear--not a murmur. Silence ominous andprofound reigned throughout the valley.
With clouded brow, and heart anxiously beating, the officer continued onhis course. He had unbuckled his carbine from the saddle, and carriedthe piece in his hand ready for use.
The silence continued. Not a cry awoke the solitude--not the flash of afusil lit up the darkness of the twilight. The sleep of death seemed tobe upon everything.
As already stated, Don Rafael had not visited the hacienda of Del Vallesince he left it when only a child: he therefore knew nothing of the waythat led to it beyond the directions he had received from his late host.
He was beginning to think he had gone astray, when a long wide avenueopened before him. This was bordered on each side by a row of talltrees, of the species _taxodium disticha_--the cypress of America. Hehad been told of this avenue, and that at its extremity stood thehacienda he was in search of. The description was minute: he could notbe mistaken.
Heading his steed into the avenue, he spurred forward beneath the sombreshadow of the trees. In a rapid gallop he traversed the level road, andhad arrived nearly at its further extremity, when all at once the wallsof the hacienda came in view directly in front of him--a dark mass ofbuilding, that filled up the whole space between the two rows of trees.
The main entrance in the centre appeared to be only half closed, onewing of the massive gate standing slightly ajar. But no one came forthto welcome him! Not a sound issued from the building. All was silentas the tomb!
Still pressing forward, he advanced towards the entrance--determined toride in through the open gateway; but, just at that moment, his steedmade a violent bound, and shied to one side.
In the obscurity of the twilight, or rather from the confusion of hissenses, Don Rafael had not observed the object which had frightened hishorse. It was a dead body lying upon the ground in front of thegateway. More horrible still, it was a body wanting the head!
At this frightful spectacle a cry broke from the lips of the officer--acry of fearful import. Rage, despair, all the furious passions that maywring the heart of man, were expressed in that cry--to which echo wasthe only answer. He had arrived too late. All was over. The body wasthat of his father!
He needed not to alight and examine it, in order to be convinced of thisterrible fact. On a level with his horse's head an object appearedhanging against one of the leaves of the great door. It was a head--thehead that had belonged to the corpse. It was hanging from the latch,suspended by the hair.
Despite the repugnance of his horse to advance, Don Rafael drove thespur into his flank; and forced him forward until he was himself nearenough to examine the fearful object. With flashing eyes and swellingveins, he gazed upon the gory face. The features were not so muchdisfigured, as to hinder him from identifying them. They were thefeatures of his father!
The truth was clear. The Spaniard had been the victim of theinsurgents, who had respected neither his liberal political sentiments,nor his inoffensive old age. The authors of the crime had even boastedof it. On the gate below were written two names, _Arroyo_--_AntonioValdez_.
The officer read them aloud, but with a choking utterance.
For a moment his head fell pensively forward upon his breast. Then on asudden he raised it again--as if in obedience to a secret resolve--saying as he did so, in a voice husky with emotion--
"Where shall I find the fiends? Where? No matter!--find them I shall.Night or day, no rest for me--no rest for them, till I have hung boththeir heads in the place of this one!"
"How now," he continued after a pause, "how can I combat in a cause likethis? Can a son fight under the same flag with the assassins of hisfather? Never!"
"For Spain, then!" he cried out, after another short moment of silence."For Spain shall my sword be drawn!" And raising his voice into alouder tone, he pronounced with furious emphasis--
"_Viva Espana! Mueran a los bandidos_!" (Spain for ever! Death to thebrigands!)
Saying this, the dragoon dismounted from his horse, and kneltreverentially in front of that ghastly image.
"Head of my venerable and beloved father!" said he, "I swear by yourgrey hairs, crimsoned with your own blood, to use every effort in mypower, by sword and by fire, to nip in the bud this accursedinsurrection--one of whose first acts has been to rob you of yourinnocent life. May God give me strength to fulfil my vow!"
At that moment a voice from within seemed to whisper in his ear,repeating the words of his mistress:--
"_May all those who raise an arm in favour of Spain be branded withinfamy and disgrace! May they find neither a roof to shelter them, nora woman to smile upon them! May the contempt of those they love be thereward of every traitor to his country_!"
Almost the instant after, another voice replied--"_Do your duty, nomatter what may be the result_." In presence of the mutilated remainsof his father, the son hearkened only to the latter.
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The moon had been long up before Don Rafael finished the melancholy taskof digging a grave. In this he respectfully placed the headless corpse,and laid the head beside it in its proper position. Then, drawing fromhis bosom the long plait of Gertrudis' hair, and taking from hisshoulders the embroidered sun-scarf, with like respectful manner, hedeposited these two love-tokens alongside the honoured remains of hisfather.
Convulsed with grief, he threw in the earth, burying in one grave thedearest _souvenirs_ of his life.
It was not without difficulty that he could withdraw himself from a spotthus doubly consecrated by filial piety and love; and for a long whilehe stood sorrowing over the grave.
In fine, new thoughts coursing through his bosom aroused him to action;and, leaping into his saddle, he spurred his steed into a gallop, takingthe road that conducted to the capital of Oajaca.